Outsourcing Your Designs
May 9, 2016
NOTE: If you haven't already seen the blog post about what types of designs sell well.... go through it first. You'll want to know what design types sell well before outsourcing them. So if you haven't seen this blog post - Designs That Sell - make sure and take a look at it first.
If you're anything like me then design is not your strong suit. I'm terrible at it. I can't even make a stick figure look good. So, instead of trying to do my own designs I just got good at hiring it out. It doesn't cost much, you can get started for about 10 bucks for a good design that can sell really well.
Here is a few places to look...
Fiverr - This is the best place to get your first design. You'll want to keep it simple as you're not paying a lot for the designs. Think about something like the "Pit Bulls Make Me Happy, You Not So Much" designs. This is a perfect place to get simple designs with witty phrases for mugs and shirts. Start here, but expect to get a few crappy gigs here and there until you find someone who you can consistently use for lots of designs.
Upwork - If you're looking to bring someone in part-time or full-time for making designs for you then I would recommend upwork. I wouldn't start here, but after you get a few campaigns up then this is a really place to go next.
LOCAL - There are lots of people in your area that are most likely looking for work. Many of those people are graphic designers. A high portion of the on-staff designers that we have here at GearBubble were found from posting local Craigslist ads.
The key is first to just START and get your first few designs up. Going through a long hiring process is completely unnecessary when you first start. So start with Fiverr.
As you learn why designs that you launched did or didn't sell... then, it'll be time to invest more into designers. And you WANT to invest in designers. Because if you want to make the big big sales numbers, I'm talking life-changing money from selling GearBubble products... then you're going to want a designer in your corner. The person who can launch 30 campaigns a week will make 10X more than the person who can only launch 3. Design is important to start, designERS are important to have lots of big winners.
So, here's your action steps.
Step 1) Write a description of a design that you want outsourced.
The best way to go about this, especially in the beginning, is to give your designer something to model from. So for example if you wanted to do a funny hiking mug or shirt.
"Hey there,
I'm looking to get a simple design made for a mug that I'm going to make for people who love hiking. I want it to have the phase "Hiking Makes Me Happy, You Not So Much" on the mug in bold fonts with some simple shapes at the bottom.
Here's an example of a design that is similar to what I'm wanting, but it's for pit bulls: CLICK HERE TO SEE
I'll want a similar bold font to that design. Then for the shapes at the bottom of a silhouette of a mountain ridge, a hiking trail, and a tent similar to what you would see at a campground.
This is going to go on a WHITE mug. So I'll want the design itself to be all black.
I'm looking for a pretty fast turnaround if possible and if I like your work then I'll have you start doing more designs for me right away.
-Your Name"
Step 2) Join Fiverr or Upwork - pretty simple.
Step 3) Post your first gig/job for a designer
If you use upwork it's going to take you a bit longer to get started. You'll post a job, then you'll have people apply for that job. If you go with Fiverr you'll be able to search for people with experience in exactly what you are looking for.
Here are a few "gigs" on Fiverr that you might want to check out...
Gig 2: https://www.fiverr.com/zombiesmasher/design-a-logo-in-less-than-24-hours
NOTE: most likely these people will get busy if they are featured on our blog so you will probably want to check if these are available and if they look backed up you'll want to search for similar.
Step 4) Get someone hired for a single design
THAT'S IT!
Now get going. I would start on Fiverr and see if you can outsource your first design today/tomorrow and have it back to you and ready to sell within a day.
-don